Still Life With Iris

An adventure fantasy drama by Steven Dietz

Set in Nocturno, "Still Life With Iris" chronicles a young
girl's quest to regain her memory and with it her home. With the help
of the incredible people she meets along the way, Iris' crusade recovers
more than her past. She succeeds in finding herself: the power of faith
and the courage of persistence. These traits will lead her home.

In the world of Nocturno, all
the things one sees by day are made by the people
who live there at night while the rest of the world sleeps. The sun is raised
each morning by a signal from the day breaker, the moon is roped and
lowered into a basket every night. The inhabitants of Nocturno busy themselves
all night long putting leaves back on the branches, painting the flowers,
filling the clouds with rain, making and bottling thunder for storms,
and painting the spots on the ladybugs. In this world, Iris is a ten-year-old
girl living happily with her mother.

Each of the inhabitants of Nocturno wears a beautiful coat that contains
all their memories, a coat that is kept carefully mended by the local
tailor, the Memory Mender. Without the coat, or if it becomes threadbare,
the inhabitants would lose who they really were, because they wouldn't
be able to remember.

During their work, they are expected to keep a lookout
for the perfect example of their creations, which will then be sent to
the Island of the Great Goods, where Grotto and Gretta Good rule and
keep a single example of the perfect leaf, or the perfect book, and so
on.
Because she's seen as being perfect of her kind, she is taken to the
island of the Great Goods, to become their perfect daughter. To do so,
she has her coat taken away from her. Iris manages to keep a button from
her
coat, and when she holds it, she remembers something, but the memory is
slim and enigmatic. She then goes on a journey to reclaim that memory.

The play's story line is
in the tradition of Alice in Wonderland. Its allegorical elements and
cultural references may mean more to the parents in the audience than
to the children,
but its strong plot, fantastical characters, and appealing heroine will
engage children as well. The play explores how loss of one's past steals
the future as well, and how our past defines who we are. Through a series
of encounters with new friends, Iris is able to seek and discover the
rest of her past, as well as revealing a wonderful secret which changes
her future.